MAN IN THE MIRROR

Recently, I heard the news of an eighteen year old girl who got pregnant. This girl finished last year from secondary school. Due to her poor performance in WASSCE and UME, her parents took her to a nearby hospital to train as a nurse instead of staying idle. But after about two months, she got pregnant. This kind of news is all we hear around these days and it's sad.

When I see/hear of teenage pregnancies, child labour and crimes among youths, sometimes I wonder who is to blame...if there is anybody to blame in the first place.

We are in a society where the government gets all the blame for bad things happening around. We are in a world where people never take responsibility for their actions but are very good at putting blames on any other person that falls prey.
Looking at the problems facing children/teenagers/youths, we can say no one should be left out in the game of blame. One way or the other, when we look at cases of young ones having their own share of the bad side of life, we could share the blame among the government, parents, religious bodies and peers...but hold on, I'm going somewhere...

Each of these sets of people have a role to play in influencing how a child turns out. There is no doubt that or expectations are not really met by those in government and we keep hoping against hope that one day 'a messiah' will show up to save our country, Nigeria.

In this blame game, we can say parents/family members are the principal people to be blamed. Charity, they say, begins at home. The lessons a child learns at home goes a long way in influencing him/her. I guess we all know one way children learn is by imitation. You may not know but your children or young ones around you watch you and sometimes act the way you do because they think it is right.That's why parents have to start teaching their children the necessary things right from a very tender age. They should not only teach, but practice what they peach and lead by example...and all these should be done in love.

Religious bodies and schools also have their own share of the responsibility to bring up a total child. They should not only teach the required subjects or sermons but try to instill good values into them.
Sometimes, people also put some blame on peer pressure . You know, being pushed to do things because people around are doing them...I'm still heading somewhere....

The thing is, I think even with all these, it will be wrong and unfair to put blame on all these people, leaving out the person in question...and that's where I'm going.
Really, nobody is going to live your life for you . At the end of everything, you realize you're on your own...take it or leave it.
You can say the government, your background, your divorced parents and/or friends is/are to blame for whatever bad situation you've found yourself in but most times, you end up feeling the pain and bearing the consequences alone. That is why you have to take charge of your life. The fact that the economy is not great or your parents are poor doesn't mean you'll automatically be poor. And the fact that your parents aren't showing you enough love or spending quality time with you doesn't give you a ticket to 'show of misconduct'.You are who you think you are. Sometimes opportunities to do great things are just right in front of us but we fail to see them and sometimes, we see them and misuse them. We should always make the best out of whatever we have at a moment and always try to improve ourselves in any little way we can.

You can continue to enjoy self pity or take the bull by it's horns and do what needs to be done before it's too late. I think it's time to give others a break and see how we can help ourselves. This reminds me of Michael Jackson's song, 'Man  in the mirror' especially, the part where he said "if you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make that change."
I'm starting with the man in the mirror...ME, I don't know about you.